Paul Clerkin
18th November 2002, 04:14 PM
New Mexican architecture
There is a satisfying circularity about the latest set of proposals for Mexico City. It is called "The Lakes Project". Its aim is to restore a water's edge condition to this sprawling metropolis as part of its continuing, explosive, growth. Very apt for the city founded by the Aztecs 700 years ago, on an island in a lake.
This history of Mexican architecture has always been conditioned by the memory of how everything began. When the Spanish conquistadors encountered the Aztec empire, its capital, Tenochtitlan, was, according to the accounts of the day, an awesome sight. It was not only in the lake, it was of the lake. Some compared it to Venice. It was razed and rebuilt in the Spanish colonial manner, and formed the kernel of what we know as Mexico City today.
http://www.hughpearman.com/articles4/mexico.html
There is a satisfying circularity about the latest set of proposals for Mexico City. It is called "The Lakes Project". Its aim is to restore a water's edge condition to this sprawling metropolis as part of its continuing, explosive, growth. Very apt for the city founded by the Aztecs 700 years ago, on an island in a lake.
This history of Mexican architecture has always been conditioned by the memory of how everything began. When the Spanish conquistadors encountered the Aztec empire, its capital, Tenochtitlan, was, according to the accounts of the day, an awesome sight. It was not only in the lake, it was of the lake. Some compared it to Venice. It was razed and rebuilt in the Spanish colonial manner, and formed the kernel of what we know as Mexico City today.
http://www.hughpearman.com/articles4/mexico.html